by Frank Baugh

Created on: August 31, 2009   Last Updated: September 01, 2009

I recently wrote a piece where I speculated that I might be turning into an agnostic. I gave some pretty compelling points to back up that change in direction. I confess; I have my doubts, but as I explained in that article I believe that everyone has their doubts. The possible flaw in my thinking is that doubts amount to agnosticism. After more thought I believe that my conclusion, while reasonable, is incorrect. Having doubts, or even simply being mad at God, does not amount to agnosticism. As I implied in the other article I believe that it is a healthy thing to debate God. Debate forces us to question and investigate God and causes us to grow through the experience. That is our ultimate goal.

What has made me switch back the other way, to a belief in God? I was gazing at the stars and got caught up in the vast, endless seemingly impossibility of space. How could such an incalculable thing be? There are literally billions of galaxies out there with billions of stars and no telling how many planets. Then I looked down beside my foot and there was a toad frog, a simple thing not much bigger than my thumb, but all the same a marvelously complex organism capable of hunting its food, procreation and hibernation. It hears, sees, tastes and feels. It is equipped by some ingenious Divine Maker to have poison sacks on its body so predators will leave it alone. Then I pondered that it was made up of skin cells and nerve cells and all kinds of other machinery that helped it hop, crawl and navigate. I assume it even has its own simple self consciousness. Man can't come close to making anything like that. Then I thought of the atoms that comprise the molecules and that there is no explanation for the nuclear forces that hold the atoms together and give them their individual properties. It boggles the mind. There is so much that we can answer, but so much more that we cannot explain and take for granted.

Is it my job to say that what can't be explained is magic, or am I better to say that what can and can't be explained is the handiwork of God? Psalm 19:1-2 "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge."

I was reminded of what St. Paul says in Romans 1:19-22 (ESV) saying "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since

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